To touch on a couple of comments you made. My father lied about his age and joined the army at 15. As they were about to ship his ass off to Korea the next year his brothers informed the Army he was indeed underage. They let him go and he then walked down to the Marine Corp recruiter and joined there. How that was possible I don't know considering this was some 60 years ago. He joined the Marines rather than work in the fields in Washington state as his mother had always done. It was an opportunity to learn a skill and have 3 hots and a cot and, yes, serve his country. Many join the armed forces now to get an education. My daughter hs considered it to apply for money for college and hopefully aquire the skills she will need to learn more about her chosen profession. Some join out of loyatly to their parents who might have been in the service. Others join to hopefully see the world and learn things that would never present themselves other wise. So yes there are many reasons.

One comment really burns me though antiphon. "My own attitude towards the young people in US uniforms today is rather like what I feel towards todays' crop of recruits into the Crips, the Bloods, or the Mafia." To in any way liken our military forces to the likes of gangs and organized crime is absolutely ludicrous (sp.) So we get rid of our military force, because the blood they spill will effect their chances in the here after. Or because it is none of our business what they do in their own countries. Do this and we will all meet or makers soon enough. How long do you actually think we will survive as a nation let alone a democracy without it? It is easy to sit back and make religious/political judgements against those who are making the deals, but given the power and responsibility of an entire nation, I am not so sure any of us would make descions that are any different. But we are not sitting in that Oval Office and I would never presume to have any idea what goes on there.

We don't know the whole story. We never will. I believe this to be a fact. I don't think they give us all the information and the Patriotic Propoganda machine works in high drive during times like these. But..even though I choose to not make public my desicion at this time as the whether I support or not support does not mean I do not wish these people to come home safely.

But I still think so many take for full advantage of the FACT, that it is easy to sit in judgement of those who have chosen the military and accept going to war as their path in life. But it is those ghosts that haunt many battles fields, those who lived and died for their countries and their beliefs that are exactly the reason you sit at your computer today and are able to have your say.

~Lass

-- Modified on 3/20/2003 10:13:31 PM